Amid his New York City criminal case alleging the falsification of business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 elections, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, insists that former President Donald Trump should face the same consequences as anybody else for any violations of a gag order.
“Trump should be found in contempt, and if he is, he should face the same consequences as any other criminal defendant, including monetary sanctions or brief imprisonment. Any decision to the contrary would risk conveying to the public—and to Trump—the message that Trump is different from everyone else. But Trump is not above the law,” said a new article from the advocacy organization, which was involved in the court case that semi-recently reached the U.S. Supreme Court seeking the disqualification of Trump from presidential election ballots this year over his argued involvement in January 6.
The nation’s highest court ultimately kept him on the ballot.
The order under which Trump might be found in contempt protects witnesses, jurors, and others connected — closely or vaguely — to the Trump case. And recent commentary and social media posts from the former president named individuals in such categories, whether Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, or the jury. In an interview, Trump reportedly complained that the trial jury “was picked so fast — 95 percent Democrats. The area is mostly all Democrats. You think of it as just a purely Democrat area.” It’s easy to imagine that these comments directly violate the order, which is designed to protect the integrity of the proceedings and participants in the case from possibilities of threats.
There is an additional hearing on Trump’s alleged violations of the gag order coming this week before the trial judge.
